Social media is fantastic. In fact, you’re using it to read this right now. In order to be successful at representing your brand, you need to make sure you avoid a few common mistakes.

1.) Talking to versus engaging: People don’t want to be sold to all the time. They need a reason to read your content. Give them one. Give them a reason to respond. When you engage your fan or follower, you create a more personal relationship, which leads to repeat business.

2.) Not staying consistent: If you start posting regularly, don’t stop. Once you cease to hold your audience’s attention, someone else will sweep in and steal them away.

3.) Not keeping it real: If you are a business that has a very formal personality, then you probably shouldn’t try to be like Red Bull on Twitter. Sony learned this the hard way when they tried to pretend there was a viral campaign for the PSP that backfired when they got caught.

4.) Not knowing the rules: Did you know that it’s against Facebook’s rules to post anything like “share this post to win a…” in order to increase engagement? It’s true. They will shut you down and delete your page with absolutely no warning. You have to run your contest through a third-party service to create an app or tab.

5.) Taboo subjects: If you are a brand selling housewares, then politics or religion isn’t something you should post about. Someone WILL get angry and start an argument and then you’ll spend all day trying to rein it all back in and get back on message.

6.) Not researching hashtags: Do you love using hashtags on Twitter? Sure you do. Piggybacking off of trending hashtags is a great way to get noticed, at least if you’re funny. Taco Bell is fantastic at this. But be sure to learn WHY something is trending before you use one. American Apparel, Kenneth Cole, and Celeb Boutique learned this the hard way after they blundered into using disaster related hashtags, which became PR nightmares.
Again, social media is an outstanding way to connect with your customers. You just have to be careful when you are putting yourself out there to the world.

SEO remains a mystery to some, but here at Media Marketers, we are always on the cutting edge of search engine optimization. That is why we are here to educate you about Google’s most recent update to its Panda algorithm.

If you are not familiar with Google Panda’s update here is a recap courtesy of searchengineland.com. Why read when you can look at pictures, right?

What lessons can we take from this graphic?

1) Content is still king. That is why Media Marketers makes sure it has the most talented content writers in the industry available at all times. It is also why we constantly update our SEO clients websites with engaging and relative content.

2) Social media is now an important factor in your search rank. Although unconfirmed, companies with more robust Google+ accounts have been ranking higher. If you are not active daily on social media or are unsure how to measure social media success contact us and our social media strategist can help you navigate the maze.

3) You can have too much of a good thing. I mean links, not money, friends, or business. Google has killed link farms, which generate tons of irrelevant links from random places on the web in order to rank high in search queries. This helps everyone, except the link farmers.

If you think you should be ranked higher than you are, contact us at 502-493-9135 and we can help.

Trust us. When you work with Media Marketers on your side development, we’re going to help you create an amazing web presence. No matter who your audience is, we’ll build your site in a way that captures their attention and engages them in your services. By adding feature-rich interaction, your site will put you ahead of the curve.

We have an ever-growing list of features that you can add to your site to increase its effectiveness in marketing. Just to name a few…

Walkout Video

Imagine a website that talks to you. That’s the power of a walkout video on your site. Share your message, your values, and your service in a visual and auditory way. A properly-placed walkout video grabs and keeps your customers’ attention, increasing your visitors time on site, and upping the chances they will choose you and your products or services.

Social Media

In a world that is increasingly connected through posts and “tweets,” businesses are finding their niche in the social media arena. We’ll help you set up your social media branding, then brand your pages to match your site.

Blogging

Become the “thought leader” in your industry. Blogging provides a unique perspective to your clients, and puts a human touch to your message. It also helps increase your overall site visits, and builds up your search engine results.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

How do people discovering you? Are they looking on Google, bing, or Yahoo! to find an answer to their problems? If you’re the solution, you want to be at the top of their search results. Our team of SEO experts will help you develop an SEO strategy with keywords and phrases that your potential customers are using. Then, we’ll do our magic to start moving you to the top of those results.

Flash and 3D animation

Have a custom flash program or animation you want included on your site? We do it all in-house.

We offer more than this. Look at our portfolio, or through our services to learn about everything we do. And check back here often, as we will continue to post new ideas and developments from the evolution of media.

Where is your storefront? In today’s world of web connectivity, the first place most consumers are going to see you is on the internet. What does your web presence say about you? Does it instill a sense of confidence about your business or organization? Or, does it leave them doubtful of your abilities and your message?

You have about six seconds to make a lasting impression. We’ll help you make the right impression.

All the Information on an Information Website

A brochure-style website offers the simple message without the integration of multimedia, e-commerce or custom features. The designs are wallet-friendly and effective. Informational websites allow you to educate your audience about your product or service. Many online researchers buy in-store. An information-rich site can retain researchers and win business.

When it comes to overseeing your website, we provide you with the most user-friendly experience you can find. Our Easy Content Management System (ECMS) makes updating and managing your site’s content as easy as editing a Word document.

While we’re all about the “evolution of media,” we also recognize the importance of the use of more traditional media formats, such as print, television, and radio. To maximize your marketing outreach, you need to have the right balance of media outlets, engaging your audience, and driving them back to you and your site.

Print

When it comes to print media, we’ve got you covered. With a graphic design team that can handle developing your brochures, business cards, fliers, posters, letterhead, catalogs and anything else you can imagine to print. We can take your existing work, or start from scratch; developing your logo and your identity.

TV & Radio

As consumers, we spend thousands of hours every year in front of televisions and listening to the radio. If you’ve got a concept or solution that needs to reach the masses, these forms of media can deliver.

When you work with our team, we’ll help you determine your demographic, storyboard your commercial, write a script, produce, and place your work. And, we do it all while finding a way to make it effectively fit your overall marketing strategy.

Media Placement

Having the right blend of traditional and interactive marketing aren’t enough. You have to know where to “show off” and get noticed. Having a strategic plan for media placement requires detailed knowledge of your demographic, your market, and the tools available.

When you work with one of our Media Placement experts, you’ll be working with someone who has years of experience in local markets, in placement schedules and go-to-market strategy awareness

Getting your message out to your audience in today’s tech-savvy environment includes opportunities in text messaging, online promotions, social media campaigns, and email marketing–just to name a few. When it comes to the latter–email marketing–there are a few tricks that you should consider.

Using an Email Marketing System

When you send out a newsletter, email “blast”, or just a mass email, it’s important that you use an system specifically developed for such purposes. Don’t send a mass email from your Outlook email. These messages get bulky, can be sent to spam, and can lead to unfortunately setbacks. You don’t want your customers to have each others’ emails. That’s a privacy issue, and there are guidelines established prohibiting spam emails from being sent.

Instead, you should use an email marketing system–such as the one we’ve developed and recently improved–to send your campaigns. Our system is developed to prevent the issues mentioned above and ensure your messages get delivered and read.

Content is Key

What you put into an email campaign is one of the most important pieces you can develop. Promotion-only newsletters tend to get ignored. Same goes if it’s heavy on text. You need to have a balance of promotion with information-sharing to be the most effective. Don’t make it overly flashy, either. It may make it through the spam filters, but the “visual spam” filter we’ve all be trained to recognize may lead to an individual deleting your email before they even read it.

While We’re on the Subject…

The subject line of your message will be the factor in getting individuals to open your email. A clever subject line draws attention and intrigue. But don’t use all caps or lots of exclamation points. This too can push your message to spam.

Timing is Everything

Choosing the right time to send your email can have a great effect on how many people actually open it and read it. So here’s what we recommend (credit to the “Apple effect” method for this):

Send on a Tuesday or Wednesday

Monday is “trash” day. All emails that even look like spam get trashed by most people

Thursday and Friday tend to be tough, as most are prepping for the weekend.

Send it around 1:30pm ET

On the East Coast, people are returning from lunch and looking to their inbox. On the West Coast, they’re getting ready to head to lunch, and checking what’s coming in

There are many other tips and tricks we can help you learn. To see what we have to offer at Media Marketers, contact one of our team members today.

When Media Marketers started, our focus was primarily on website design and development. While that has continued to be a large part of what Media Marketers can offer, we also recognized that this wasn’t the only tool to effective marketing.

In fact, we see things in marketing a bit differently than your typical, traditional ad agency. The agency mindset of the past several decades has been that print material is the backbone of marketing. That’s where you print your brochures, your catalogs, your newsletters, and send your message out to the masses with bulk mailings, large distribution lists, and tons of paper.

In the past fifteen years, agencies have been trying to plug web-based marketing into that system. The problem is, the world—and marketing—don’t work that way. When you do, neither element works effectively.

We recognized that in today’s world, your website and online presence serves as the “hub” of all your marketing media. Now, your print material supports your website and points people to visit it. Your TV, Radio, and other marketing tools do the same. Your website is what people will look at first when they’re searching online for a product or solution.

But, it all needs to work together. And there are always new methods being developed. That’s why we have created a team of individuals that are always dreaming, always working hard at discovering or developing the next tool in the marketing arsenal. In the last few years, that’s meant we’ve been creating some incredible solutions that you can use for your marketing strategy.

Socialify – A new product that we’re rolling out that integrates all of your social marketing tools into one space on Facebook. Visit our Facebook page to see how it works.

Pod Sites – When you have a keyword or phrase you really want to focus on, you can create a single-page site, called a “pod site” to increase your search engine footprint.

Total World Domination (TWD) – Still in the development stage (including the name). A way to increase your national search engine rankings by targeting the most populous markets in each state or region.

3D Animation – We’ve been working in 3D for a while, but we’ve really hit our stride lately. Check out some of our great new animation work on our YouTube page. You’ll be amazed by what can be developed in-house.

There’s lots more coming from Media Marketers. And we love a new challenge. So don’t hesitate to say, “I have an idea. Can you…?”

Congratulations to our client, Supporting Heroes on being selected for Louisville’s Dream Team development project. Every year the AAF (American Advertising Federation) partners with a local, non-profit organization to support them in their marketing and advertising needs. The mission of Supporting Heroes is to honor the service and sacrifice of public safety heroes who have given their lives in the line of duty by caring for loved ones they leave behind.

Setting yourself apart from your competition requires many steps; how your site looks, how easy it is to navigate and get solutions, and—maybe more importantly—being seen as the leader in your industry.

A while back, we shared our G.E.A.R. strategy overview with you. The second step in that process is to EDUCATE your audience. That includes the use of a blog.

Using a blog to educate your visitors is a key step to being recognized as the “thought leader” in your field of expertise. A thought leader is one who sets the tone for a subject, and through the sharing of knowledge, can help sway trends and behaviors. Through honest discussion and first-person writing, your blog can give your reader a level of trust about you and your business, and help differentiate you from your competitors.

Method to the Madness

Having a blog benefits you in more ways than just being seen as a leader. Every time you post a blog, you’ll be adding to your website content, and driving up the amount of information on your site that Google and other search engines can reference. In the end, you’ll have a library of useful information, and you’ll see your search ranking move up.

Speak Your Mind

Blogging is your venue for sharing your thoughts, your wisdom, and your opinions. It’s “mid-range social media;” not quite articles, and not quite a “tweet”. It’s your way of taking the lead and setting yourself apart.

If you’re interested in our blog solution, and would like more information about blogging methods, let us know. One of our marketing and blogging strategists will be happy to help.